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Typically a tombstone will include the name of the deceased, their dates of birth as well as death, and at times a prayer or personal message which is referred to as the epitaph. Whenever a standing monument is positioned at the head of the grave, it is called a stele. This monument is comprised of several parts that need to be assembled to make it complete. The sole is the horizontal part that forms the monument's foundation. The base is the funerary tombstone's basis. Rounded or square, it may be equipped with a planter or prie-dieu.

The stele is the vertical part that comes in various shapes, including a triangle, tulip, heart, parchment or cove to receive the epitaph as well as an ornament (glass paste, sculpture in low relief, lithography), which is enhanced by a base or directly planted into the ground. The marker is the horizontal piece that covers part of all of the grave. It is comprised of a cocked hat, flat slopes and variable dimensions. It opens the vault and is able to receive those same ornaments that the stele does.

The monument grave is adorned with funeral engraving. In comes in five colors usually (silver, brown, black, gold and white), and enables you to enter the person's full name and their birth date and date of death. Funerary or tomb art is the term that describes works that are made to remain on top of graves that are in cemeteries.

It is a kind of representation that is associated with the worldview of a specific economic, social, ideological and historical context, that interprets life and death. The interpretation may be done by a narrative work or set of symbols using various materials like cast iron, bronze, granite or marble.

Tomb art reached its high point during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Due to cemetery garden advances, it is not used as much now. In terms of symbols, their representation results in different meanings for objects built and put into a tomb. For instance, a torch with fire refers to the soul's purification after death. In other words, the real meaning of the torch has been transformed into a symbol of purification.

The constructed monument grave, in terms of narrative meaning, has literal rather than metaphorical representation. For example, since leaving their homeland many immigrant narrate their epics until their lives have come to an end. Although the symbols that funerary art uses are frequent used in other arts as well, the symbolism that tombs used are only able to be correctly interpreted when the cultural and social context as well as time are taken into account where they were used. Erroneous conclusions can result if any predefined interpretation is made.